~ a year of celebrations

Curling IS Cool

I tried to come up with an interesting way to celebrate today’s holiday. Short of reserving some time at the Detroit Curling Club and attempting to find 7 other willing participants to fork over $25 bucks each to play a sport I have no idea how to play…I drew a blank. There is not even a good modified way to enjoy curling. I thought about taking a picture of me vigorously sweeping my kitchen floor, but that really seemed like a stretch. There were no special brooms, no 44 pound curling stones (aka rocks) and no expansive sheet (150 foot area of ice) to be found today. So, I am going to have to just be happy with learning more about curling for today’s holiday. I mentioned the Detroit Curling Club earlier. I did not know this even existed until today when I set about on my curling information quest. I thought this sport was mostly centered in Canada:

I am right about that, but it turns out the first curling club in the US was the Orchard Lake Curling Club in good old Orchard Lake, Michigan. It began in 1830 and the Detroit Curling Club was founded 10 years later. See, even with something as seemingly obscure as curling I am learning more and more about my home state! The only time I have been exposed to the wonderful world of curling is during the Olympics. It did not become an official Olympic sport until 1998. I like watching it and hearing the thrower yell at the sweepers to either speed up or slow down. I read through the majority of the Wikipedia page about curling and it is super confusing. Now I understand why they call it ‘chess on ice’. I don’t understand chess, so why would I understand curling? I think it would be a fun sport to try, especially since you get to wear special shoes:

That’s right. You get to wear one shoe that is a sliding shoe and one shoe that is a non-sliding shoe. I can only imagine how many times I would trip and fall on a slippery sheet of ice with two different shoes. Maybe it’s best I remain a bystander and leave the throwing of the stones to the professionals. Yep, I think that’s best for everyone.